The NOMENCLATURE of APES. 



TO teach children, and to addrefs men, are 

 two very different offices. Children receive 

 without examination, and even with avidity, 

 the arbitrary and the real, the true and the falfe, 

 whenever they are prefented to them under the 

 form of precepts. Men, on the contrary, re- 

 jedl with contempt all precepts which are not 

 founded on folid principles. We {hall, there- 

 fore, adopt none of thofe methodical diftribu- 

 tions by which, under the appellation of ylpe, a 

 multitude of animals, belonging to very different 

 fpecies, have been huddled together in one in- 

 difcriminate mafs. 



What 1 call an ape is an animal without a tail, 

 whofe face is fiat, whofe teeth, hands, fingers, 

 and nails refemble thofe of man, and who, like 

 him, walks eredl on two feet. This definition, 

 derived from the nature of the animal itfelf, and 

 from its relations to man, excludes all animals 

 who have tails; ail thofe who have prominent 

 faces or long muzzles ; all thole vv'ho have crook- 

 ed or fharp claws; and all thofe who walk more 

 willingly on four than on two legs. According 

 to this precife idea, let us examine how many 

 fpecies of animals ought to be ranked under the 

 denomination of apt;. The ancients knew only 



one. 



